The Hunger Games isn't scared to translate the brutality of its subject matter onto the screen. It's at times quite violent, dark and bleak. It also is a very visually beautiful and thought provoking vision of a world driven to extremes by the very nature of being run by the human race. This is a world where the powerful make the poor fight to the death in a "game" of survival. Donald Sutherland's President claims it is all about keeping order, about controlling the power and about intimidating the Districts who once revolted against the government. It's much more than that though. As Stanley Tucci's Caesar presents the games like the Superbowl, it feels much more close to sport than a form of order. This being a sport which sees twenty-three people dead every single year.
It tinkers around with these grand questions; would the games continue if no one watches, how immoral is it to treat a human life so carelessly and what makes an individual feel no responsibility for the deaths when they can become part of a crowd. However it clearly doesn't want to answer them yet. There are still two more novels to tackle these questions. The Hunger Games is all about creating the world, and finding the important people within it.
